The Perfect 28-Out Game: A Teachable Moment?

Last night's "Debacle at Commerica" and the aftermath that kept unfolding today was amazing to watch (the boys will probably remember it forever since we let them get back out of bed to watch the "perfect game" unfold), but it also reminded me of a lesson I used to teach in my first semester business communication course.

My colleagues and I were always struggling to find ways to help our students understand the constructive nature of language--since most saw language as little more than the vehicle to convey meaning. We all had our different methods and content to get at this point. Not surprisingly, I used a baseball analogy to get at this concept.

The basic idea is that there three umpires who are discussing how they call balls and strikes.

The first umpire replies: “Some are balls and some are strikes, and I call them as they are.”

The second umpire replies: “Some are balls and some are strikes, and I call them as I see 'em.”

The third umpire replies: “Some are balls and some are strikes, but they ain’t nothin' ‘til I call 'em.”

Simply replace "balls/strikes" with "safe/out" and last night, while heartbreaking for us Tiger fans, make this point painfully clear. Were I still in the classroom, I might actually have an excuse to show a Tigers game in the classroom under the title of a "teachable moment."